Process for the fractionation of oils and fats



3,541,123 PROCESS FOR THE FRACTIONATION OF OILS AND FATS Tsukasa Kawada and Nobuya Matsui, Tokyo, Japan, assignors to Kao Soap Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, a corporation of Japan No Drawing. Filed Oct. 21, 1968, Ser. No. 769,414 Int. Cl. C11b 7/00 U.S. Cl. 260-4285 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A process for fractionating oils and fats in which'the Oil or fat is dissolved in l-nitropropane, 2-nitropropane or mixtures thereof, following which a first fraction is obtained by crystallization at -18 C. and a second fraction is obtained by crystallization at 3-5 C. The second fraction being rich in li-oleodisaturated glycerides and being useable as a cacao butter substitute.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to a process for separating, by a solvent fractionation process, a fraction rich in a disaturated monounsaturated glyceride of a particular type rep resented by B-oleodistearin, from an oil or a fat which is comprised of a mixed glyceride system.

More partichlairlyfthe present invention makes it possible to provide a glyceride composition which can be advantageously used as a substitute for cacao butter. Ac-

cording to the present invention there is obtained a fraction rich in a disaturated monounsaturated glyceride havingan unsaturated acid in its fl-position. This glyceride also forms the greater part of the glyceride composition of a cacao butter. Thus, said fraction can be used as a cacaobutter substitute.

Description of the prior art In generally used natural oils and fats, except special cases, the disaturated monounsaturated glyceride component is a mixture of SOS (fi-oleodistearin) and CS5 (.a-oleodistearin), wherein S represents a saturated fatty acid and 0 represents an unsaturated fatty acid, which consists mostly of oleic acid. It is known that the greater part, usually 73 to 83% by weight, of the glyceride composition of a cacao butter is monooleodisaturated glycerides (T. P. Hilditch: The Chemical Constitution of Natural Fats, 3rd Edition, 1956, John Wiley & Sons Inc., page 351) and that the greater part thereof is of the SOS type. Further, it is known that the excellent properties which characterize cacao butter for its commercial and industrial uses, such as smooth melting in the mouth, narrow melting point range and moldability, are derived from said p-oleodistearin type monooleodisaturated glyceride.

United States Patent 0 TABLE 2.-FATTY ACID COMPOSITIONS IN MOL PERCENT IN B-POSITIONS OF S20 GLYCERIDES Oils and fats I Hard- Beef Mutton ened Caca Glycerides tallow tallow palm oil butte Fatty acids C12 2. O 2. 1 1. 2 4. 3 3. 7 1. 3 0. 6 27. 8 22. 8 26. 8 3. 0 3. 3 2. 4 19. 7 22. 4 0. 7 2 4 42. 9 46. 6 68. 2 94 0 SOSISOS+OSS 0.462 0.490 0.682 0. 94

NOTE: F indicates one double bond (SOS type). Thus, Cm F indicates an unsaturated fatty acid having 16 carbon atoms and one double bond.

It is conventionally known to divide an oil or fat into several glyceride fractions having different physical properties by subjecting it to a solvent fractionation process. In such a process, the oil or fat will be fractionated to obtain a first fraction comprised substantially of trisaturated glycerides, a second fraction comprised substantially of a mixture of disaturated monounsaturated glycerides and monosaturated diunsaturated glycerides and a third fraction comprised substantially of a mixture of the remaining monosaturated diunsaturated glycerides and all the unsaturated glycerides. However, in such a conventional process, a fraction rich in ,B-oleodistearin glycerides is diflicult to obtain.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, the solvent fractionation process is carried out so as to remove a first fraction comprised substantially of the (S +*OSS glycerides in the first fractionation step and to obtain a second fraction containing the SOS glyceride component in a concentrated state in the second fractionation step.

Further, in the process of this invention, l-nitropropane or Z-nitropropane or a mixture of them, should be used as the solvent in order to obtain a second fraction rich in fl-oleodistearin-type glycerides. The weight of solvent used is 1.5 to 5 times as large as of the weight of the oil or fat fractionated in order to obtain a favorable result. An excess of the solvent will reduce the yield of SOS in the obtained second fraction.

The process of the present invention consists of a first step wherein an oil or fat containing fi-oleodisaturated glycerides as part of its disaturated monounsaturated glyceride component, such as, for example, beef tallow,

-mutton tallow, palm oil and their slightly hydrogenated oils and fats, is dissolved in the above mentioned special solvent, the solution is cooled to a temperature of 10 to 18 C. while the solution is stirred slowly and the de- The glyceride compositions and thefatty acid com'po sitions of disaturated monounsaturated glycerides in the various oils and fats named below, measured according to the method of Jurriens, De Vries and Schouten [J Llpid Res. 5, 366 (1964)], are as follows:

TABLEL-GLYCERIDE COMPOSITIONS IN MOL PERCENT l L represents an unsaturated fatty acid of the linolic acid or linolenic acid series. I

posited crystals are filtered so as to be obtained as a first fraction. Then, there is carried out a second step in which the filtrate of the first step is further cooled to a tempera: tureof 3 to 5 C. while it is stirred and the deposited crystals are filtered so as to be obtained as a second fraction. Thereafter an additional step or a third step is carried out in which the solvent is driven out of the first and second fractions as well as the filtrate of the second step. By this process, a fraction having a high weight ratio of SOS can be obtained as the second fraction.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Example 1.A deacidified and decolorized refined mutton tallow (of an acid value of 0.3, saponification value of 19S, iodine value of 42.7 and melting point of 45 C.) was dissolved at a ratio of 3 cc./ g. in each of the three kinds of solvents listed in the following table, the solution was cooled to 10 to 11 C. and crystals were obtained Glyceride composition in mol percent S S20 SOz-SzL were deposited while the solution was slowly stirred. The crystals were separated by filtration to obtain a second fraction. The results are shown in Table 6.

TABLE 6 Ratio of Yield solvent to in peroilin Fraction cent by Iodine Solvents cc./g. number weight value as a first fraction. Then the filtrate was cooled to 3 to 4 C. and crystals were obtained as a second fraction. The results are listed in Tables 3, 4 and 5.

Experiment S 1 m 1 H M H H pm a mmm mmm w c w S 000 0 0 0 dd 0 n m Yee d O r. 0 2 3 3 no 56 s 1 6 2 2 3 p y 8.1C 1 1 1 1 1 1 mOnn .1 h ac a d 0 emw l 7 389 051 1 5 6 7 8 2 .ny av F 3 3 5 &0.& 1 Pi U W. m Hri w 456 455 1 ed \1 m 4 t V mum s T 0 fdw m 1 8 8 9 7 7 .1 w H 8 1O flpv mm 2 0 o 5 2 .0 .mm .1 7 1 a .m .m 2 ame awn u mmn iiiiii m 0 s e 1 1 1 0 799722266582762444 H n O B m e V f m 7 0 6 &4 &&.a6 0 &d& o S A m F 122 010 n 36 3523513513524 ud C W m T m .M S mnnmwm v 0 Cl 1 m l .l S 465545 W a C r wmw mm w d000 0 0 794997073617717709 OdG m l m 4 43 009 .1 m a S 0 0&7 3 5 00 4 &0 5 2 C v h C 0 8 0 A n dhm O m N 172 838 fle s 0 02 2 2 5 2 5 3a m mr S 12 123123123123123 V. eh :H h nd n e m .I d m 695 041 k 0 w C O 16155 nm 0 0 01.0. 101 m fm m F t p f 1 a 5 m m a0 m n mmm o n0 11111111111111 T 0 e m; r 5.2.00 m 0 a a x 0 e n a m 7 3 m .1 a pm 0 E N 1 2 3 4 5 0 gaaasa d mmmmmm G0 554 3 095 SS8.

H n u .mm 48 9 D 0 9& nomfi 7050 e e e da 233 N 1 o e n n n n h n m b 0 Hmsnm m. F m m m h n n n o sfi e 0 m m m 0 u m w )m mm wwwmmm 8 n ammo .00 .1 r Y m w 0 d n 308 E 2 545 W l m 4 31352 t .L t t O 0 o G 0 m (w 332 EN 0 LAMB. em E 1 C 33647 & 1 m 1 n M a a 1 1w 6 111 0 M 0 011111 s a NR w m. e A

n n n n n n Y IE S VO T n n n u n 00 557 M W O 738 M S C 4.2.1.3.23.

0 n u n h mmiio Iom za cmOn a n Mm 232 T 76 S 1 2 3 4 5 6 m M y m E c 0 c m 30 L M MD 7..m3. m .m mmm C 00030 L B1 mm awn n s rso m m m ma 1.22. edpcesn F m T yn GD 81 I 121212 .1 EN f "8.13 0 Y I 0 mb mm m wsm mm H E0 Mn m m CI fice m YT .9. Yb n1 u 0 L fls o u n e GA ow nu" R m mO I m U 0 M L a n 0 2S 6 a n o c dh P n S r. .6 S m nT m e a @mm m m wmw eefia. m w w em B w emu Hmmt w a m u a m n A a man fl mm a 0 a n S 2An T S zAn o fiu S 9 A n Fatty acid in the fl-position in percent by weight TABLE 8 Iodine value The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed is defined as follows:

1. A process for fractionating oils and fats by a solvent crystallization and fractionation process, which comprises It is evident from Table 5 that, when 2-nitropropane was used as the solvent, the ratio of SOS in the second fraction showed the best value.

Example 2.Solutions of the refined mutton fat described in Example 1 were made using the solvents listed in Table 6 and at the respective solvent ratios listed in First iraction Table 6. Crystals were deposited from each of the solu- F Sewndfractwh tions while the same were slowly stirred at 18 C. The crystals were separated by filtration after 30 minutes to obtain a first fraction. (As an exception, in experiments Nos. 3 and 6, the separations were made by crystallization at 10 C. for 10 minutes.) The filtrate was cooled to 5 dissolving an oil or a fat selected from the group consist- C., was kept at this temperature for 1 hour and crystals ing of tallow, mutton fat, palm oil and their slightly hydrogenated oils and fats containing p-oleodisaturated glycerides in its disaturated monounsaturated glyceride component in a solvent selected from the group consisting of l-nitropropane, 2-nitropropane and mixtures thereof, the weight of the solvent used being 1.5 to 5 times as large as the weight of the oil or fat, cooling the solution to a temperature of 10 to 18 C. and separating from the solution a first crystal fraction, and then cooling the remaining solution to a temperature of 3 to 5 C. to obtain a second crystal fraction which is rich in ,B-oleodisaturated glycerides.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,345,389 10/1967 Zilch u 260-419 5 LEWIS GOTT S, Primary Examiner E. G. LOVE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

